Pilibhit: Sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh are already struggling with the pending cane arrears, and now threatening disease ‘Red Rot’ is also adding to their woes. Due to its devasting effect, scientists also call Red Rot as cancer of sugarcane. Pilibhit district cane growers in the state are facing the brunt of it as thousands of acres of land are under the effect of Red Rot. According to the experts, the disease that is highly variable in nature is not curable, but it can be prevented.
The farmers have informed government officials about this and have demanded remedy for the same. On the information about Red Rot, sugarcane officer Jitendra Mishra visited the Bisalpur region on Thursday and inspected the sugarcane crop. Mishra has asked for the protective measures to curb the infection to other cropped fields.
He said, “Red rot is a fungal-borne disease that infects the tissues of cane stem. The infection of red rot can be transmitted to other fields though air, rain water, irrigation water and even the heavy dews. This disease can be prevented. If any farmer sees such an infected sugarcane crop, it should be destroyed immediately, or else it spreads very fast.”
It is expected that it will harm the sugarcane output in Uttar Pradesh along with sugar production.
[…] molasses prices are seeing a rapid increase given the rapid expansion distilleries to make ethanol. Also, red rot which is a very dangerous disease and spread very rapidly in sugarcane plants have sta… Although, it is in its initial stages, if not tackled properly, it spread […]